LONGMONT - A reunited Longmont mostly got to go home again Saturday, though several residents were watching the skies nervously for signs of renewed flooding.

The city lifted most of its evacuation orders throughout the day and also re-opened Main Street and Hover Street, allowing north and south Longmont to easily reach each other for the first time since the "500-year flood" hit Thursday. By midday, the returned families were looking over the mud and debris left behind and starting to clean up.

"Water put it here, water can take it away," Mike Terifay said as he began to blast thick mud from his father-in-law's sidewalk with a high-pressure hose. "Right?"

As of Saturday night, evacuations were still in place for Champion Greens, The Greens, The Valley, and the area between Ken Pratt Boulevard and the railroad tracks.

"We have allowed the homeowners to return to access essentials, but they will not be allowed to remain," Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said.

The neighborhoods in the area of Airport Road and Ninth Avenue were among the hardest hit by floodwaters. An aerial survey of the city revealed that the St. Vrain had broken its banks and rerouted through the subdivisions around Twin Peaks Golf Course, which itself was covered in brown and muddy waters.

Gabe Anderson, left, Mark Swanson, top, Stefani Anderson, and Savana Anderson, work as a family to clean the mud out of their yard on Lefthand Drive in Longmont Colorado on September 14, 2013.
Cliff Grassmick/Times-Call
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Homes sprouted out of the waters on street after street. Police manned barricades, and frustrated residents on the edge of the evacuated areas asked for help keeping people from driving through just to get a look at damages. A makeshift sign posted along Ninth Avenue west of Hover Street read "Privacy Please." For the third straight night, the city instituted a curfew for evacuated neighborhoods, from 10 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday.

Saturday saw only scattered rain in town, but the forecasts looked ominous. Saturday night had a 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms with a 70 percent chance of more rain in the forecast Sunday.

"If we get more rain, is it going to rise again?" asked Virginia Beck as she watched the still-turbulent waters of Left Hand Creek near Missouri Avenue. "Are we going to be evacuated again?"

Her husband, Bill Beck, looked toward the creek.

"It got its hundred-year try," he said.

City officials flew over the flood-ravaged communities from Lyons east to Interstate 25 and Colo. Highway 119. Washed out bridges and roads, flooded streets, and homes and businesses surrounded by acres of floodwaters were noted. Colo. 119 east of Longmont to I-25 had chunks of asphalt torn away and mud and water still covering large portions of the roadway.

Mike McDaniels shovels out mud from the basement of a friend's house on Lefthand Drive in Longmont Colorado, on September 14, 2013. Cliff Grassmick /For the Times-Call
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At the far end of the valley, the Button Rock Dam was holding steady with spillways apparently working well as of Saturday, and Longmont's city water facilities were also in good shape.

"It is giving us intel for engineering and the Army Corps of Engineers about what we need to do to get that river back on track," Satur said. "We have a lot of bridges and levies out that need to be taken care of."

On Guard

The morning began with reinforcements. Fifty-six troops from the Colorado National Guard arrived with 28 Humvees to secure the city's road blockages, so that police and emergency workers could be freed up for other duties.

Rumors of looting had arrived even before the Guard did, but Longmont police repeatedly said the reports were unfounded. In addition, they said, the reinforcements and the return of homeowners would make even the chance of it less likely.

"Now that people are re-entering their homes, this reduces the potential of crime in our community," a report from the city's emergency management office said.

Several of the soldiers and airmen soon found themselves standing aside so that residents could re-enter. At Southmoor Park, a barrier at the South Pratt Parkway Bridge near Missouri Avenue remained only so that cars could stay off it until engineers had a chance to inspect it.

"We don't recommend staying (in the neighborhood), but we're not going to go in and pull anyone out of there, either," Senior Airman Alexander Muir said as returning neighbors passed the barrier. "You're at your own risk if you enter."

Mayor's message

In a video message Saturday evening Mayor Dennis Coombs complimented the work of city staff and the patience of Longmont residents in recovering from the massive flood that swamped the city.

"Everybody's been hitting on all cylinders," Coombs said. "We're doing as much as we can as fast as we can."

That included restoring power to the city's wastewater treatment plant Saturday and getting it running to requirements, despite being surrounded by water. (The city's water treatment plant remained undamaged.) It also included working with the Army Corps of Engineers to put the St. Vrain River back in its original banks; the flood had drawn a new course for part of the river.

Heavy equipment and snowplows began to hit the streets to clear the goop and muck from afflicted neighborhoods. Meanwhile, animal control officers combed the flood areas looking for stranded animals to reunite with their owners.

Some of the remaining tasks were more mundane, but necessary. In one example, the city announced that it would be delivering dumpsters to the most heavily stricken neighborhoods. The arrival of the trash bins will be announced on the longmontoem.org web page and through social media.

"In the meantime, residents should place unwanted items on the front lawn near the street - not in the street," a statement by emergency management officials read. "There will be normal trash collection on Monday."

But residents more than did their part as well, Coombs said.

"I'm also very, very proud of the citizens of Longmont for all that they're doing to help each other out," he said in his address. "I think this is a great town, and I'm proud to be your mayor. ... Have patience. Things will get better, and I hope very soon."

Pierrette J. Shields contributed to this story.

The washed out bridge on South Sunset Street on Saturday morning, Sept. 14, 2013. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

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